Of course, I had to go and get the next book in the series!

Synopsis (as taken from Amazon Kindle Store) is as follows:

Going to two weddings – one of a former lover – and a funeral for a member of her disbanded crime study club keeps Aurora ‘Roe’ Teagarden quite busy for a few months. Unfortunately, her personal life seems to be at a standstill – until her fortunes unexpectedly change.

After the funeral Roe learns that Jane Engle, the deceased, has named her as heir to a rather substantial estate, which includes money, jewellery, and a house complete with a skull hidden in a window seat. Knowing Jane, Roe concludes that the elderly woman has purposely left her a murder to solve. So she must identify the victim and figure on which one of Jane’s ordinary seeming neighbours is a murderer – without putting herself in deadly danger.

Ability the read – I had no difficulty in reading this. I was already familiar with the characters and the setting, having just read the first book, so everything was fresh in my mind. In this book I felt that I learnt more about Roe’s personality and how she views the world. It was nice to get her insight of other characters and watch how she navigated her life during awkward times. I thought she was very resilient and persistent in the way she lived her life in this book and applaud her determination to get to the bottom of things, one way or another.

Characterisation – I would say that Roe is still in caterpillar form, I don’t think she’s ready to be cocooned yet, but the instances that happened to her in this book have definitely pushed her in that direction. The abruptness of a lover of hers in the first book becoming a ex in this one was grating and seemed to me more as a means to free up the character, rather than something that would actually happen. I don’t know whether it was done to intentionally cause Roe pain and help her grow as a character or whether it was done without though or consequence. Either way, I was not there for it. I don’t think Roe needs a man to stand by her side for she is such a strong character in her own right and I felt when reading this that the author was playing a game of speed dating with the character.

Roe was the driving force that kept me interesting in this second book because I found myself constantly waiting for the crime to happen only to be disappointed. I think this installment was more focused on the characters development and narrative than it was on the general crime plot.

Visualisation – I had no issue with visualise what was happening here. Having only recently read the first installment, the images were still at the forefront of my mind and I was able to dive back into the world during this second installment.

Uniqueness – I don’t particularly think there was anything about this book that made it unique but that isn’t to say it wasn’t a good book. I think my opinions of this book are harsher because I expected more for the character of Roe and am clouded by one of my book pet peeves. For the most part, I still enjoyed reading this installment of the series and despite what I found annoying, I am still open to reading the third in the series.

Problems – I found this while reading the Sookie Stackhouse Series and though I came into Aurora Teagarden with an open mind, it has once again made an appearance that has made me grind my teeth. Roe’s love life is infuriating – I understand that as a character she is entitled to have a love life and I respect that – but none of the people she’s been paired with so far are people that match her character. I understand going through a few people before finding ‘the one’ but if this series of books is going to follow Sookie Stackhouse and ultimately pair her off with someone so wrong for her – more wrong than the pairing of Hermione and Ron in Harry Potter – then I don’t know if I can commit myself to reading any more of the series. I’m sitting on a fence now and I don’t know which way to turn!

Hannah xoxo